Chinese new year celebration become very commercial now and I really don’t feel the real atmosphere here except when shopping in Mall. This year I managed to visit some old friends and also doing some shopping to refill my cupboard after gave away 3 big plastic bags of old cloths to my maid and friend.

The weather during CNY is so hot in here until you do not have mood to go out under hot sun. Some of my trekking buddies remain active in trekking during CNY. I cannot follow them all the plans and only manage to do 2 short treks – 1 to Saga and 1 to Serdang hill (short trek to see sunrise). Next weekend, will be Chap Goh Mei (Yuen Xiao) celebration but I have to work and standby for system cutover, most probably will bring some mandarin oranges and throw each other in the office………………………..

 My networks keep growing and most of the new friends are met during our trekking or outing. Recently met another group of trekking in Broga and they are all young man and glad to see them active in trekking as we notice most of the youngsters love to sit in front of computer to play computer games or facebooking. They are all very young trekkers and after discover that we have trekking activities organized weekly, so we exchange contacts and emails to stay connected.

Next 2 weeks I will be busy involve in system cutover, most probably need to work during weekend. Hopefully, after system stable, I can resume my trekking activities as normal and also looking forward to trek in Pine trees trail at Fraser Hill.

I have lost some friends/relatives in 2009 who suffer from cancer/heart attack and accidents. More bad news reached me closer to the end of the year my cousin’s wife and primary teacher also diagnosed with breast cancer. Cancer became so common now and it’s getting closer and closer and attack friends and family surrounding …. we are all highly exposure to pollution and live in stressful environments, lack of exercise etc.

I hope we all can live in more healthy life in 2010 and let’s practice these and look for better and healthier 2010.

• Eat a Healthy Breakfast

• Drink at Least 8 Glasses of Water

• Take a Good Quality Multiple Vitamin/Mineral

• Connect with Other People

• Express Your Emotions Appropriately

• Eat Fruits and Vegetables

• Spend at Least 30 Minutes Outdoors

• Do Something Physically Active

• Take Some Quiet Time for Yourself

• Keep Regular Sleep Hours

• Establish a Relationship with a Doctor You Can Trust

We received the following “grand gift” from the groom’s family:-

• western and chinese wedding cakes

• two bottles of brandy

• even numbered of tangerines or oranges

• rice and sesame candies balls 油麻筒

• a pork leg and a whole roast pig

• two pairs of dragon and phoenix candles 龙凤烛

• Bride’s price 娉金 (Some people also call the bride’s price “bride’s dowry”) from the groom to the bride

After the ceremony over, that’s the busiest moment for us to help deliver and distribute out all the biscuits and cakes to friends and relatives.

Please see some of the info related to stroke:-

What is Stroke?

A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells. In the same way that a person suffering a loss of blood flow to the heart is said to be having a heart attack, a person with a loss of blood flow to the brain or sudden bleeding in the brain can be said to be having a “brain attack.”

Brain cells die when they no longer receive oxygen and nutrients from the blood or when they are damaged by sudden bleeding into or around the brain. Ischemia is the term used to describe the loss of oxygen and nutrients for brain cells when there is inadequate blood flow. Ischemia ultimately leads to infarction, the death of brain cells which are eventually replaced by a fluid-filled cavity (or infarct) in the injured brain.

When blood flow to the brain is interrupted, some brain cells die immediately, while others remain at risk for death. These damaged cells make up the ischemic penumbra and can linger in a compromised state for several hours. With timely treatment these cells can be saved. The ischemic penumbra is discussed in more detail in the Appendix.

Even though a stroke occurs in the unseen reaches of the brain, the symptoms of a stroke are easy to spot. They include sudden numbness or weakness, especially on one side of the body; sudden confusion or trouble speaking or understanding speech; sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes; sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination; or sudden severe headache with no known cause. All of the symptoms of stroke appear suddenly, and often there is more than one symptom at the same time. Therefore stroke can usually be distinguished from other causes of dizziness or headache. These symptoms may indicate that a stroke has occurred and that medical attention is needed immediately.

How Do You Recognize Stroke?

Symptoms of stroke appear suddenly. Watch for these symptoms and be prepared to act quickly for yourself or on behalf of someone you are with:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble talking, or understanding speech.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination.
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause.

‘The Law of the Garbage Truck.’

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they’ll dump it on you. Don’t take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. Don’t take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets. The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Life’s too short to wake up in the morning with regrets, so… Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don’t. Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

Have a blessed, garbage-free day!

The weather there is like hot oven and to escape from the heat, I slightly change the plan to spend more days in Chengde (Mountain Resort of Qing Emperors) and Bashang (boarder between Hebei and Inner Mongolia). Anyway, we still manage to visit Olympic bird nest and watch ballet show in water cube stadium in Beijing with our colleague from Beijing. The show was performed by famous ballet group from Russia, with combination of ballet on stage and synchronise swimming in the pool.

 Next day we took bus to Chengde from Shanliqiao bus station and the journey suppose only took about 4 hours but we ended up reach Chengde in 6 hours. Chengde, lying in the northeast of Hebei Province, is close to Beijing, about 230 kilometers away. The bus left the station around 7.30am but along the way, the bus conductor keep stopping to get more passengers. The bus journey passed the Gubeikou where the famous Shimatai great wall was nearby. We only able to cover mountain resort in the afternoon and spend about 3 hours listen to the stories related to each of the special buildings in the summer resort. 

On the subsequent day, we have joined 1 package tour to Bashang which commonly joined by the locals. This is the most popular trip for the local to spend their summer holiday. But this type of tour are very commercialise, the tour guide will spend more time at those places that can bring them more commission like horse riding and tube rafting. The horse man will hold the rope and pulling you around with you riding on the horse back. It’s charged RMB50 per hour and the tour guide will convince you to take longer ride so that they can earned more commission. Compared to 18 years ago when I first traveled in China, we don’t see any locals traveled around China and most of the time just foreign tourists or oversea Chinese. But now China improved so much with economic getting better and better and now you can see 90% of the tourists are from China itself. They seem more afford to spent compare foreigners, every where are crowded with the locals especially during this long summer holiday. 

Compared to Chengde and Bashang, Beijing & Tianjin really too hot for us to enjoy. Anyway we still covered all the places that we have planned in this trip. Beer becomes our best drinks daily to cold down our body after travel under hot weather. It’s a total different experience compare my past trip that we used to cover spring, autumn and winter. I will explore more to inner Mongolia if we have chance to do so next time.

Ingredients : 
1) black fungus (80g)
2) old ginger (80g) 
3) red dates (10)

Method : 

1) Soak the black fungus in water until it is soft and then wash it clean.
2) Cut the ginger (without removing the skin) into roughly 8 slices.
3) Remove the seeds from the red dates.
4) Put all the ingredients into a slow cooker.
5) Add in 8 cups of water into the cooker.
6) Cook the mixture for 6 hours using low heat. 

Note :
It is best to prepare this in the evening and start cooking before you go to bed. If you start cooking at say 9 pm, the soup should be ready for drinking by 6 am.